Paul Whitehouse is so damn talented. Would love to see a show where they focus on two characters and follow a narrative.
Harry & Paul - Series 4 Page 4
Quote: Will Cam @ November 4 2012, 11:47 PM GMTI see there was no studio audience? I actually had to YouTube previous series to confirm that previous shows did have an audience.
I think that is the reason that a lot of people aren't getting this.
There are more laughs in New Tricks, and that doesn't have an audience!
I assume he gave Larry from Curb a bizarre mafia accent on purpose? Bit weird.
But funny aside from that.
I think that, considering the talent involved, last night's episode was the worst half hour of comedy I've ever sat through. The only time I approached even a glimmer of a smile was the Curb parody, and even that was poorly handled.
The two women who speak quickly; again what is that meant to be a joke about? The subtle as a housebrick humour of the bloke who rips off women in his shop is about as funny as a root canal, the boxset sketch was terrible, even Parking Pataweyo was poor.
To sum up, I didn't really like it. Would be interested to know what people found funny about it.
Quote: zooo @ November 5 2012, 10:44 AM GMTI assume he gave Larry from Curb a bizarre mafia accent on purpose?
I thought all New Yoikers spoke like that, zooo. Overall I enjoyed it. Not classic Whitehouse/Enfield by any means but enough left-field weirdness and grotesques to make me tune in again.
Quote: Millsy @ November 5 2012, 12:44 PM GMTI think that, considering the talent involved, last night's episode was the worst half hour of comedy I've ever sat through.
I watched most of the first episode, and didn't so much as smile. It appeared to be self-indulgent toss produced by two has-beens whose reputation meant that no-one on the production team dared question it. I'm now trying to watch the second episode, and it is if anything worse. The sketch in which the old woman curses the man in the yellow sweater: in theory, even in the script meeting, what about that was hypothesised to be funny?
Spoofing the (watched by very few) Curb? It is now 2012. Curb started in 2000. Spoofing the (insufferable) Dragon's Den? It is now 2012. Dragon's Den started in 2005. That stench of formaldehyde is coming from the Grumbleweed and Harold Wilson sketches that are waiting in the wings. And in the case of the Curb spoof, it fails both as a spoof and as humour in its own terms.
There's a constant whiff of racism (it's hard to see how "Parking Patoweyo" isn't racist) and, particularly, homophobia (endless references to "queers" which a Freudian might find interesting). The sketch about the shop that sells overpriced tat: why is that funny? (I don't mean "why might I find it funny?" but "what ingredients does it contain that constitute any sort of humour?) Same question for the two elderly ladies in the typing pool: aside from the presence of two washed-up comedians, what relationship does it have to humour?
The black and white thing wasn't funny once, but while I've been typing this, it's come on again, and is if anything less funny. Is the anachronism of the coffee press deliberate or lazy? There's something very, very nasty about the "work experience" sketch, which I presume stems from Enfield's belief that everyone young is lazy and stupid, a position that would be slightly more tenable if he wasn't making lazy and stupid sketch programmes. It also isn't funny, and lacks the slightest semblance of a punchline. Oh look, the two fast-talking ladies are back: did they pay anyone to write this shit? Oh my God, the Curb sketch is back. What did Einstein say, that insanity is doing the same thing twice expecting the outcome to be different? Three attempts, not a chance.
Thank God, it's finished. Not the slightest hint of humour, or a joke, or talent, or evidence that anyone competent wrote, directed, edited or commissioned it. Whitehouse and Enfield are now in the fortunate position that their name will get any old shit they toss off commissioned (see, also "Bellamy's People") without any need for them to invest any effort into it. Absolutely shameful, and whoever commissioned it should be sacked.
Quote: Lee @ November 5 2012, 12:03 AM GMTPaul Whitehouse is so damn talented.
Or was, twenty years ago. Since then, not so much. He got lucky with the Fast Show, which finished fifteen years ago, but since then has produced nothing of note. Happiness? Help? Bellamy's People? Please. The point about talent is that you don't piss it up the wall in hopeless, unwatchable shows for an audience of obsessives, but that you display it by producing work of quality and value. Which he hasn't managed for fifteen years.
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ November 5 2012, 8:33 PM GMTI watched most of the first episode, and didn't so much as smile....
....Which he hasn't managed for fifteen years.
Well, said! What he said!
I haven't seen the show yet, Tokyo Nambu and I don't know if I ever will watch it. But I really enjoyed your comment.
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ November 5 2012, 8:39 PM GMTI haven't seen the show yet, Tokyo Nambu and I don't know if I ever will watch it. But I really enjoyed your comment.
I hope you get to see it. It sets comedy back 15 years.
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ November 5 2012, 8:33 PM GMTOr was, twenty years ago. Since then, not so much. He got lucky with the Fast Show, which finished fifteen years ago, but since then has produced nothing of note. Happiness? Help? Bellamy's People? Please. The point about talent is that you don't piss it up the wall in hopeless, unwatchable shows for an audience of obsessives, but that you display it by producing work of quality and value. Which he hasn't managed for fifteen years.
Someone hasn't seen the Aviva adverts!
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ November 5 2012, 8:33 PM GMTOr was, twenty years ago. Since then, not so much. He got lucky with the Fast Show, which finished fifteen years ago, but since then has produced nothing of note. Happiness? Help? Bellamy's People? Please.
Happiness wasn't perfect but it was an interesting failure. Help was excellent and would have gone on to be considered a classic had not the whole Chris Langham episode derailed it. And Bellamy's People didn't work, but it was based on one of the great radio shows of recent years, Down The Line, so you can understand why it was commissioned.
Quote: chipolata @ November 5 2012, 8:56 PM GMTHappiness wasn't perfect but it was an interesting failure.
I thought it was entirely self-obsessed: a comedian clearly in the grip of a mid-life crisis making a series about a comedian in the grip of a mid-life crisis, which is probably filled with recognition if you're a comedian in the grip of a mid-life crisis.
Help was excellent and would have gone on to be considered a classic had not the whole Chris Langham episode derailed it.
It was even more self-obsessed. "Therapy" is a charlatan's field which, like cocaine, is one of God's ways of telling you that you've got too much money for the amount of sense you have. Making a comedy series about it simply proves that you've been spending an awful lot of time amongst people who have more money than sense as well. It's metropolitan, cliquey and simply unfunny. You didn't need to have been in the Home Guard to recognise that Dad's Army was funny, because it used the Home Guard 1941 as a device to comment on class and snobbery 1971, just as you didn't need to know much about the court of Queen Elizabeth I to be amused by the second series of Blackadder. That wasn't true of Help: the whole thing was incomprehensible (and, more to the point not funny) unless you were part of the "therapy" scene.
And Bellamy's People didn't work, but it was based on one of the great radio shows of recent years, Down The Line, so you can understand why it was commissioned.
Down the Line worked because it wasn't just a vehicle for Whitehouse's ego, there were other funny people doing funny things. Bellamy's People didn't because it was, and there weren't. And it's also responsible for the appalling Citizen Khan, or more accurately (if you're discussing making people laugh) Citizen Can't, which has to be held against it.
Still liked it in places. Admittedly, experience has taught me to ffwd over Parking Pataweyo, so I can't comment on just how awful that might be, and much of the rest does little for me, but there's enough elsewhere to keep me interested. I don't really understand what's going on with the jockeys...or are they commentators?
The Dragon's Den sketch reminded me of something I wrote a couple of years ago; https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/18929#P677209
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ November 5 2012, 9:49 PM GMTIt was even more self-obsessed. "Therapy" is a charlatan's field which, like cocaine, is one of God's ways of telling you that you've got too much money for the amount of sense you have. Making a comedy series about it simply proves that you've been spending an awful lot of time amongst people who have more money than sense as well. It's metropolitan, cliquey and simply unfunny. You didn't need to have been in the Home Guard to recognise that Dad's Army was funny, because it used the Home Guard 1941 as a device to comment on class and snobbery 1971, just as you didn't need to know much about the court of Queen Elizabeth I to be amused by the second series of Blackadder. That wasn't true of Help: the whole thing was incomprehensible (and, more to the point not funny) unless you were part of the "therapy" scene.
Stuff and nonsense. I've never been near a therapist, but firmly rank Help as one of the best sitcoms of the 2000s. It was extremely funny not because of its setting, but because of the characters, the stories they told, and their personal traits.
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ November 5 2012, 8:33 PM GMTIt ... lacks the slightest semblance of a punchline.
Yes, very Pythonesque in a number of respects, I thought.
The actress who played Larry's non speaking wife in the Curb sketch (Izzy Mant, according to a helpful Mark at the Guide), looked very like Tracy-Ann Oberman, IMHO.